


Free Flying, Free Falling

by starlightwalking



Series: the world as we know it [16]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Black Nolofinwëans, F/M, Finwëan Ladies Week 2020, Hopeful Ending, Road Trips, Unplanned Pregnancy, Warning: Eöl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:07:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26878672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: Aredhel's post-graduation solo road trip is interrupted when she meets a hot guy who turns out to be more than he seems.
Relationships: Aredhel & Argon | Arakáno, Aredhel/Eöl (Tolkien)
Series: the world as we know it [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651942
Comments: 15
Kudos: 33
Collections: Finwëan Ladies Week 2020





	Free Flying, Free Falling

**Author's Note:**

> For Finwëan Ladies Week 2020, Day 3: Aredhel and Galadriel!
> 
> This story can stand alone, but for more context on the situation with the House of Finwë (especially Fingon and his tall new boyfriend!), go read the rest of the series :)
> 
> I've had Aredhel's story in this AU planned out in my head since the very beginning; it was both exciting and depressing to finally write this. Here's a [moodboard](https://arofili.tumblr.com/post/190810030791/image-description-a-3x3-moodboard-1-a-black) I made for her awhile back.
> 
> Content warnings for abuse (specifically of a Black woman by a white man), controlling behavior, Eöl being Eöl, unplanned pregnancy, implied non/dub-con, blink-and-you'll-miss-it implied consideration of suicide, and mentioned racism.  
> Basically, all the shitty stuff from canon translated to a modern universe (that isn't quite the same as ours, but is very similar) and made a bit more explicit. But not terribly explicit; I don't go into a lot of detail. Still, be warned, and take care of yourself if you need to!

Tall, dark, and handsome—that was Aredhel's type. And this guy checking her out—well, he wasn't _dark_ , exactly, not with that pale complexion and silver hair (especially not compared to Aredhel herself, with her mass of dark curls and ebony skin), but the other two? Oh yeah.

"Hey, hot stuff," she said with a wink, sidling up to him. "What's a girl gotta do 'round these parts to get a drink?"

He looked her at with a long, slow smile. "Ask nicely," he said in a low voice. "What would you like, sweetheart?"

* * *

Aredhel fucked him in her car twenty minutes later. It was the best lay she'd ever had, though she was only 18 and she hoped it'd only get better, and she knew immediately she wanted to do it again.

Thankfully, he was amenable.

* * *

She'd been sleeping in her car whenever she could, to avoid hotel expenses, or out under the stars when the weather of wherever she was allowed, and honestly she'd forgotten how good it felt to lie in a bed. Not that she planned on doing much sleeping in Eöl's bed, not when sex was on the table.

Well, maybe they'd try table sex in the morning. She _was_ gonna get a good, free night's rest out of this when she'd worn him out. He was an older guy—that was hot in and of itself—and wouldn't last as many rounds as she could, with all her youthful energy.

Probably.

* * *

"Thanks for everything," she mumbled as she rolled out of his bed in the morning.

He grabbed her wrist. "Don't go." It was almost a command, and she smirked.

"Alright, once more for the road," she agreed.

* * *

It wasn't just once more. By the time they were done, it was afternoon, and she didn't really feel like making the drive to Himlad that day.

"Got anything to eat?" she asked.

"I'll buy whatever you want, darling," Eöl promised. "Where do you want to go?"

* * *

Sleeping with strangers, trying new food, seeing the world—this was _exactly_ everything Aredhel had dreamed of for her gap year road trip. Oh man, Galadriel was gonna be _so_ jealous when she told her about this. Poor girl, with still her senior year to go, for all she was only a couple months younger...at least this way they'd be starting college together.

She got out her phone to text a brag to her cousin and give her parents the obligatory (censored) reminder that she was still alive. She'd forgotten the night before.

Eöl watched her as she unlocked her phone. It was sexy, the way he couldn't keep his eyes off her.

* * *

He was up before her the next morning, with coffee and a hot breakfast prepared. She would've been crazy to turn that down, and when she thanked him he brazenly asked for another round in return.

She was itching to go, but he'd been so nice...

She sucked him off one last time, then hit the road.

* * *

Her tire blew out a mile from his place. When she gave Eöl a call, it's like he was waiting for her.

* * *

"I can fix it," he said, kneeling next to her tire. "I'll need to go into town to get supplies, though."

Aredhel didn't know shit about cars, which had worried her parents when she left, but hey—this was why she flirted with nice guys like Eöl.

"Be back in the evening," he promised, dropping her off at his place again. "Help yourself to anything in the kitchen."

* * *

He was gone for a day and a half.

* * *

Aredhel's phone died before Eöl came back, and her charger was in her car...which was sitting, locked, in Eöl's driveway. She'd given Eöl the keys.

She'd never felt more alone in her life. She wanted to call home, but Eöl didn't have a landline and he'd taken his own cell with him. His chargers didn't fit into her port.

At least he had TV.

And vodka.

* * *

She didn't remember him coming home, just...waking up in his bed, hungover and fucked out.

He wasn't even _there_. He'd left a note saying her car would take more work than he'd thought and he'd taken it into the shop.

_I'll pay, don't worry. Just hang in there._

He didn't say it, but Aredhel realized she'd found herself a sugar daddy. She and Galadriel had joked about that, she'd kind of wanted it, to help with tuition and shit...

So why did she feel so gross about the whole thing?

* * *

"Where's my car?" she demanded.

Eöl threw a wad of cash at her—$1500 in bills. "The rest is in the bank," he informed her. "You're welcome."

"What the fuck!" she shouted, and he grinned, grabbing her by the ass and pulling her close.

"I love your dirty mouth, baby," he crooned, and she didn't know how to tell him "no."

* * *

How the fuck had she ended up here, acting basically as Eöl's fuck-toy? He bought her things and didn't make her do much housework, and she'd be lying if she said the sex wasn't good, but...

It had been almost a month. She was trapped. She couldn't leave.

* * *

He got her a new phone. No long distance calls, though, and he read all her texts before she sent them.

The worst part was her parents probably thought she was fine. Wild, reckless Aredhel, fallen in love with some hot rich guy—it _was_ the kind of thing she'd do.

And he was still... _nice_. Controlling, yeah, but he let her choose dinner and movies and new sex positions, too. He never yelled or hit her. He was just...clingy. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Right?

* * *

Four months before she convinced him to let her call home. When she did, Eöl loomed over her, not threatening, exactly, but...warning.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured her parents. "Yeah, the weather's great out here, my boyfriend's nice..."

* * *

"I don't like 'boyfriend,'" he hissed to her that night.

She gasped. "Is—mid-coitus the best time to have this conversation?"

He picked up his pace and finished. He didn't check to see if she had. (She hadn't.)

"How does 'husband' sound, instead?"

* * *

She signed her life away a week later. There was no ceremony, just a document and a courthouse.

She could've fought or schemed, but she was scared of him. What could she do? What was the point?

She didn't want her baby to grow up fatherless, after all. Not that she'd told Eöl she'd missed her last two periods. Not yet.

She'd start to show soon enough.

* * *

He didn't look at her when she told him.

At last he said, "It had better be a boy."

He left for a week after that. He wasn't the same when he got back.

* * *

How the fuck did you tell your parents you'd been kidnapped, forced into marriage, and knocked up? Especially when you'd always pushed back at them for being too controlling? Aredhel thought she might die of shame before she could get through asking for help, if she could even figure out a way to contact her family. Eöl had taken over all her communications, and the last time he'd let her reach out was just a simple "happy holidays!" text around New Year's. That was _months_ ago.

She thought about sneaking into his office and sending a covert email to her mom, but... She knew she'd just break her heart. Dad's, too. Turno would be disgusted, Arno would cry, Galadriel would be embarrassed...

Finno, though. Finno might help. Lord knows he'd gotten into his fair share of trouble before, and he had a hot new boyfriend, last she heard. A _tall_ boyfriend. Taller than Eöl, maybe? Not that she was looking to steal her brother's man, but—if worse came to worst, maybe the new boyfriend could...she didn't even know. Beat Eöl up? Probably not.

But Aredhel was pregnant, and the very idea of exposing Finno to someone like Eöl, when she knew he'd rush valiantly in to rescue her without a thought for his own safety...that turned her now-delicate stomach. She couldn't risk that.

Maybe after the baby was born. She'd have time to plan, then.

* * *

She called him Lómion, and she loved him more than she'd ever thought she could love anything.

Eöl didn't like the name and refused to write it on the birth certificate. He didn't come up with his own name for their son, Maeglin, for twelve entire days. At least at that point he let her put "Lómion" as a middle name.

Aredhel hadn't ever wanted to be a mom. She loved Maeglin, but she _still_ didn't know if she wanted that. She was only 19—her birthday had passed. So much time had passed, almost a year. Galadriel had probably started college by now, and hated Aredhel for abandoning her. Maybe Turno had gotten up the nerve to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Maybe Finno had taken his not-new-anymore boyfriend to meet the family. Maybe Arno had gotten that part he wanted in the school play. She didn't know.

The world turned, but Aredhel stayed frozen in her little bubble in Nan Elmoth.

* * *

The phone rang so many times that Maeglin started crying. Eöl demanded she shut him up before he finally answered. She nursed her baby quietly as she heard her husband snap, "She doesn't want to talk to you!"

Maeglin let go of her breast and wailed. Eöl hung up.

"I'm blocking that number," he snarled.

* * *

For the second year in a row, Aredhel spent her holidays alone.

Well. Not quite alone. She had a baby now, and Eöl was always there, lurking, omnipresent. But this time she couldn't even text her family well-wishes, and as one year turned into the next there was a part of her that wanted to just—

She didn't even know. She loved Maeglin too much to leave him. She hated Eöl enough to consider it.

There was no way out, but she couldn't see a way through, either.

* * *

Eöl would leave, randomly, unexpectedly, for days at a time. He rarely told her when or why; she'd just...wake up, and he wouldn't be there. It was always a relief, but with no way to guess when he'd be back, a source of fear, too.

He'd been gone for two days when the phone call came. Aredhel's heart beat as she picked it up—no one had her contact information but her husband—but she didn't recognize the number. A telemarketer, probably. She answered it anyway; that's how starved she was for human interaction that wasn't with Eöl or a baby.

"Hello?" she said, weary, and the person on the end of the line got half a sentence into his spiel about car insurance before he broke off.

"Wait— _Aredhel_?" her little brother Argon whispered.

* * *

Arno had turned 17 and was in his senior year of high school. He'd just gotten his first job as a telephone solicitor. He hated it, but he needed something to put on his resume, and this was flexible with his schedule for school and extracurriculars. (And yes, he'd gotten the lead role in the school play, _finally_.)

At least, that's what Aredhel pieced together afterward. She spent that first phone call crying, mostly. She hadn't heard from her family in _so long_ , and it had been even longer since she'd talked to Argon, and not since she met Eöl had she been able to talk freely about her life.

She had been right in her prediction—Argon did cry when he found out what had happened to her. But he wasn't angry, at least not at _her_ , and now he _knew_.

And if he knew...

* * *

"I'll help you get out of this," Argon promised fiercely. "I'll—I'll tell Mom and Dad—"

" _No_ ," Aredhel insisted. "No, please, don't, I can't..."

"I have to tell _someone_!" Arno protested. "I can't just leave you there—and with a _baby_ —can I tell Finno?"

Finno. Aredhel bit back another sob. How many times had she imagined Finno swooping in to save her? How many times had she dreamed of Turno showing up one day and driving her away?

"Yeah, okay," she whispered. "Tell our brothers. But—but no one else. Please. I can't...I'd be humiliated..."

"They'll have to find out eventually," Argon murmured.

She shuddered. "After. After I'm..."

"We'll get you home," Argon vowed. "I—I'm just a kid, really, but Aredhel, I _promise_. We'll make sure you and Maeglin are safe from that bastard."

* * *

"I'll call you back," Argon said. "When is that motherfucker out of the house, usually?"

"Language," she said, a poor joke from someone as foul-mouthed as her, but he only snorted.

"He's..." She shook her head. "I don't know, Arno, he comes and goes without warning...he blocked every one of your numbers..."

"He won't have blocked every number I can call from at work," Argon reasoned. "My boss is a good guy, if I explain to him the situation I'm sure he'll let me help."

Aredhel's breath caught. "But what if he gets the authorities involved? I don't..."

"I'm not _stupid_ ," Argon said, and she could practically _hear_ him rolling his eyes. "I think he's done some jail time, for a probably racist shitty reason. If there's anyone who'll get it, it's Bór. I mean, that's the only reason he's at this kind of shitty job instead of something better. He'll help, or at least turn a blind eye."

"If you're certain..." Aredhel took a shuddering breath. "Okay. Okay. Call back this time tomorrow? If Eöl's here I'll just pretend you're...well, I'll just pretend you're _actually_ doing your job instead of trying to contact me."

"Okay," Argon said. He paused. "Aredhel?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

She sniffed. "Love you too, little bro."

* * *

Eventually he did have to hang up and get back to work, or talk to his boss, or something, and Aredhel was left alone in the house. Maeglin was, blessedly, sleeping; when Eöl would return was, as always, a mystery.

But Aredhel smiled, and she meant it.

She was _hopeful_. She trusted her brothers, and for the first time, there was a reason to believe that she could escape, that she could go _home_.

"Maeglin, baby," she whispered to his sleeping form, so beautiful, so peaceful. "Maeglin...we're going home."

**Author's Note:**

> Aredhel's story _will_ continue, and I promise everything will be all right in the end! I think I'm going to get to the next major point in the Russingon plotline first, but then I'll come back to Aredhel and wrap things up with her.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and please comment if you enjoyed!  
> You can find me on tumblr [@arofili](http://arofili.tumblr.com/), and check out the [Finwëan Ladies Week blog](http://finweanladiesweek.tumblr.com/) too!


End file.
